The pivotal U.S. non-farm payrolls report is also due on Friday, which will be the final day for Fed speak before the black out period going into a policy meeting on March 22. "Although I'm sure the Nikkei will stay up throughout the day, the topside must be starting to get heavy considering we also had a more than 400-point rally on Friday," said Maki Sawada, a strategist at Nomura Securities. "The recovery to back above 28,000 happened really suddenly." (Reporting by Kevin Buckland; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
By Kevin Buckland
TOKYO, March 6 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei share average
surged more than 1% on Monday to a three-month high, tracking a
Wall Street rally in the previous session after U.S. Federal
Reserve officials calmed fears of policy overtightening.
Rate-sensitive tech shares outperformed in Japan, taking
cues from their U.S. peers on Friday, after comments from
Richard Fed President Thomas Barkin that inflation is "likely
past peak," helping to rein in long-term Treasury yields from
multi-month highs. A day earlier, Atlanta Fed chief Raphael
Bostic hinted that a peak in rates may come in summer.
Chipmaking equipment giant Tokyo Electron jumped
3%, Sony added 2.9%. Startup investor SoftBank Group also jumped about 3%, buoyed by news that its
subsidiary Arm Ltd aims to raise at least $8 billion from a U.S.
listing.
The Nikkei opened above the key psychological 28,000
mark and probed as high as 28,288.62 for the first time since
Dec. 1, before entering the midday break up 1.2% at 28,259.97.
Of the Nikkei's 225 components, 182 rose, 41 fell and two
were flat.
The broader Topix gained 0.9% to 2,037.63.
Further gains for Japanese stocks could be hard with Fed
Chair Jerome Powell giving testimony to Congress on Tuesday and
Wednesday, followed by Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda's
final policy meeting running the following two days.
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